Now There’s Yet Another New Version of The Band Perry?
You love your old dog. But sometimes the best thing for you to do and the most humane thing possible is to take it out behind the barn, express your love for all the good times, and shoot it. Actually, they have much better ways to handle this these days chemically that’s a lot easier on everyone involved. But the point is, put it out of its damn misery.
That was already supposed to have happened with The Band Perry back in 2023 when they officially called it quits. This was after a prolonged and ugly period of one iteration after another of bleached hairdos and reversions from pop, back to country, to EDM, then back to pop, and a long rumored Nicki Minaj collaboration that never happened.
Then in May of 2023 and only a few months after The Band Perry officially announced they were disbanding, a pregnant Kimberly Perry announced a solo career and released a part 2 version of the band’s hit song “If I Die Young.” At that point, despite all the laughable history with this band and how they became a cautionary tale for country acts wanting to go pop, you kind of wanted to root for Kimberly, especially if she was rekindling the band’s country roots.
But now we get yet another new version of The Band Perry, and even more bleached hair in the form of Uncle Joey from the ’90s version of Full House after even one of the Perry brothers couldn’t take this anymore and ducked out. Actually, the new dude’s name is Johnny Costello, and he replaces brother Neil Perry, and I guess is Kimberly Perry’s husband. The other brother Reid Perry remains, for now.
So your next question might be, what is the reason for all of this? And the answer appears to be a simple one: Booking. Kimberly Perry was always the most prominent member of the band, but nobody would recognize her name on a festival poster. The Band Perry can get placement while Kimberly Perry is just a generic name.
Why do you think Lynyrd Skynyrd is out there still touring with no original members left, or the Marshall Tucker Band after Doug Gray stepped away? It’s because there’s still people willing to pay money to see these bands due to the name recognition, and these fans probably didn’t know who was in the band in the first place.
When you started seeing The Band Perry name appear on festival posters, including events like Bristol Rhythm and Roots, you almost wanted to laugh. What version of The Band Perry would we get?
If there’s any good news, it’s that the announcement of the reconstitution of The Band Perry also comes with assurances they’ll be playing all of their early hits and moving back to country once again, which is good. After all, when they started out they were a cool, string-based roots oriented band with some great songs like “Better Dig Two” written by Brandy Clark. But The Band Perry is too young to be a nostalgia act. They’re contemporaries of Eric Church.
The lesson to learn from The Band Perry remains to always try to be the best version of yourself as opposed to chasing whatever trend you think might make you relevant. Hopefully, that’s what this new version of The Band Perry is.
June 17, 2025 @ 11:03 am
Mr. Costello is Kimberly’s husband, FYI.
June 17, 2025 @ 11:08 am
News to me. Interesting that none of the announcements for this mentioned that.
June 17, 2025 @ 11:07 am
They played the Opry back in February and the post they made on Facebook announcing their return read like a hostage note, with all sorts of forced references to older acts and Opry stars, trying to tell country fans “we’re really back!”
“One more time for those in the back….our @opry homecoming was a dreammmm.
Can’t believe it’s already been a week since we sang Young Love by The Judds onstage for the first time and got to eavesdrop while Ricky Skaggs and his FIRE band warmed up backstage.
We hung out in Little Jimmy’s dressing room and reminisced about the first time we debuted at the Opry. The show was at the Ryman and LJD greeted us outside by the back steps while he was smoking a cigarette. We’ll never forget it.
The 3 of us ate popcorn all night and sipped on our fave Opry backstage staple: strawberry lemonade. Felt REAL good being back – can’t wait to do it again and again. “
June 17, 2025 @ 11:17 am
I thought it was the dude from Rascal Flatts.
June 17, 2025 @ 11:25 am
I thought she was married to a baseball player?? Guess she changed that incarnation too 🤣
June 18, 2025 @ 1:58 pm
changing genres and husbands every year, seems a little bi polar
June 17, 2025 @ 11:31 am
At what point is a band not the band?
Old crow medicine show is ketch and no other originals
Turnpike has a different drummer
Silverada has a different drummer, added Omar and lost Zach.
The stragglers are different.
Just curious how it works. Is the bands name IP of the band leader?
June 17, 2025 @ 11:37 am
Blackhawk is another one that comes to mind.
June 17, 2025 @ 1:58 pm
The Steeldrivers were my first thought. I feel bad but I can’t even try to listen to them without Chris Stapleton.
June 18, 2025 @ 5:50 am
Same, and not because the replacement isn’t good – but any lead vocalist is such a downgrade from Stapleton. Unfair act to follow there.
June 17, 2025 @ 9:18 pm
I wouldn’t really count Blackhawk in this. Van Stephenson died, so they can’t really control that. They have two original members including Henry Paul who has always been lead vocals… so they still sound the same. All the hits we know and love still work. However, you can’t say the same for Little Texas who is literally at best a karaoke version of the original.
June 17, 2025 @ 11:50 am
This was particularly contentious amongst multiple members of The Beach Boys when “The Beach Boys” were endorsing certain political candidates most of their former members did not want “The Beach Boys” endorsing.
June 17, 2025 @ 12:20 pm
Exact same situation with the Village People and Trump.
June 17, 2025 @ 2:55 pm
One thing even liberals can thank Trump for is the breakup of Florida Georgia Line! Unfortunately, the liberal one (Tyler Hubbard) has become a big star on his own and is still waving that bro country flag.
June 17, 2025 @ 12:29 pm
That’s something I’ve wondered as well. On the rock side, for example, you have the band Yes which, as far as I am aware, has none of the members from when they were big/any of the founding members, but they still go by the original name?
June 20, 2025 @ 12:26 pm
I saw Yes last year and Steve Howe was still kicking.
But point taken.
I do think as we go on we are getting to the point of “official” cover bands. Which is what it is. It will be interesting to see if someone can eventually secure the rights to multiple band names and make a super cover band tour.
June 17, 2025 @ 3:49 pm
If I had a band, I’d name it Theseus and change a band member after every show.
(I’m still morbidly curious to hear “Heart + Beat”.)
June 17, 2025 @ 6:17 pm
The people who start a band trademark the name and that holds. They can make whatever rules they want and let other people in or out. And the public or commercial face of a band doesn’t have to totally match the legal framework.
Alabama was publicly a foursome and went into the Country Music H-o-F with Randy Owen, Jeff Cook,Teddy Gentry and Mark Herndon as the members. Some years later, Owen issued a statement that Herndon was actually just a hired hand and was only put on all their album covers and promotional posters because the record label wanted them to look like the Beatles. I was never a fan of the group, but the nastiness there turned me off to them. I mean, I’m sure Jimmie Fortune was a “hired hand” with the Statler Brothers when he replaced Lew Dewitt, but the Reids didn’t go off making public statements to that effect. They always treated him in public as a full member. Fortune wrote three or four #1 hits and top -10 songs for them and secured his place there.
In rock, Ringo’s son, Richard Starkey was apparently a “hired hand” with The Who –because they recently fired him. Vince Gill is a “hired hand” with the Eagles, replacing the deceased Glen Frey, but it looks like he’ll keep touring with them as long as they go on. Gill seems pretty astute and know how to compartmentalize between his personal career and his Eagles gig. I got tickets to see him next month at the Beacon Theater. Luckily (for ticket buyers) his “rock star” status has not caused prices to rise for tickets for his own shows.
June 18, 2025 @ 8:46 am
The Alabama situation soured me on them as well. Our county fair is having an Alabama tribute band as their headline entertainment this year. A few of the comments on Facebook asked if they disowned their drummer as well. Made me chuckle
June 19, 2025 @ 12:05 am
As the person who has listened to Alabama’s two-disc “For the Record” album more times than I can count, the Mark Herndon situation was completely repulsive to me. Mark even has a life-size statue in downtown Fort Payne along with the three other members, and you mean to tell me he was nothing more than “hired help”? The worst part is when they began cutting Mark out of old promotional photos by either crudely cropping the sides or Photoshopping his head out and leaving a disembodied shirt and limbs (you can find a number of examples on their website and Facebook page). For many people, Mark was the coolest member of Alabama and is quite possibly the most famous drummer in country music; he deserved better for his efforts.
June 18, 2025 @ 7:39 am
You are basically posing the Ship of Theseus thought experiment in country music form. I like it.
June 17, 2025 @ 11:36 am
Interesting. But don’t hold your breath for a happy ending.
June 17, 2025 @ 11:47 am
Genuinely heroic levels of giving the benefit of the doubt from trigger here
June 17, 2025 @ 12:34 pm
Somehow, the things’s hair got worse. My goodness.
June 17, 2025 @ 12:38 pm
They’re playing our local casino (Rivers-Des Plaines) in July in the 900 seat theater with tickets going from $60-$100, and as of right now it looks to be about 1/2 sold…. go figure! LeAnn Rimes is sold out at the venue. On the flip side, my local Mayor spares no expense at spending my tax dollars for our Free Summer Concert series, where we have Cheap Trick, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Scotty McCreery. Guess where I’ll be going?
June 17, 2025 @ 6:41 pm
How many original members of Cheap Trick and BTO are still in those touring bands?
June 17, 2025 @ 7:23 pm
That’s a great question. I know Robin Zander, Rick Nielson, and Tom Petersson are in Cheap Trick with Rick’s son on drums. Randy Bachman is back fronting BTO, and Fred Turner is with him, so as is mostly always the case these days, if the main singer/songwriters are there, that’s a good thing.
Let’s not forget these are free shows on 3 Tuesday nights, except Cheap Trick on the 4th of July, it’s not all one concert. You can’t beat free lawn chair BYOB shows in the summer, all of which are superior to The Bland Perry for $60. Folks come from miles around because we’ve been doing it for years.
June 19, 2025 @ 1:26 pm
Yeah, I mean, Bun E. Carlos died, so a true reunion was never in the cards.
June 19, 2025 @ 2:54 pm
Shit dude, you scared me!!!……. Bun is alive and 75, living in Rockford, and like many drummers at that age, isn’t up to the task of a full set. He’s a legend around these parts and was the perfect drummer for Cheap Trick. Still, a free show on the 4th of July with 3 out of 4 original members is a great option for the locals. I’m not sure where I’ll be as there’s a lot going on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bun_E._Carlos
June 17, 2025 @ 12:59 pm
I had conveniently forgotten them and now you had to go remind me of them again. Thank a lot Trigger! LOL
June 17, 2025 @ 1:13 pm
Have you ever seen a picture of an artist that reeked of more desperation than this one? The tall one is in a jacket that doesn’t fit, not to mention that thing growing on his head. The (formerly, I think?) tall one on the right looks like cultural appropriation in the flesh, and Kimberly’s look speaks for itself. The most normal of the bunch but still desperate attention-seeking.
Literally all The Band Perry has to do to be relevant again is return to their lane and stay in it. Most musicians can’t transcend genres. To be able to be successful within 1 genre is a massive blessing, not a limitation. Whoever was in their ears years ago encouraging them to jump ship when they were so good at pop and bluegrass influenced country should be on the wrong end of a lawsuit.
They need to stop trying so hard and do the simple thing.
June 17, 2025 @ 1:21 pm
The only time you can successfully put your husband in your band is when you are Susan Tedeschi.
June 17, 2025 @ 5:14 pm
One of the best live shows you’ll see.
June 17, 2025 @ 6:43 pm
Pat Benatar and husband Neil would like a word with you.
June 18, 2025 @ 12:27 am
Take a number after Wynonna
June 17, 2025 @ 9:01 pm
Rosanne Cash’s husband IS her band. (As well as her producer for the last 30 years.)
June 17, 2025 @ 1:25 pm
That chick is crazy.
June 17, 2025 @ 1:33 pm
They should have stuck with the music that made them. They seemed too “hungry” to go Pop. Her solo stuff sucked and the struggle to reinvent herself again has put a black eye on their early music. They have become a novelty act in my eyes. By the way the Queen cover sucked too!
June 17, 2025 @ 2:01 pm
I wonder if the members not included in the rehash were the ones driving the move into pop and EDM. I’m rooting for them.
June 17, 2025 @ 2:06 pm
Kimberly wanted to be a pop star.
June 17, 2025 @ 5:14 pm
‘Better Dig Two’ and ‘If I Die Young’ were not bad songs but they were OVERPLAYED to death. This was when terrestrial radio still had decent market share. You would scan stations and here one of those two songs playing on at least one station at any time. I almost hate something more when it’s somewhat decent to the point it’s overplayed because it’s accessible to so many people – like that one song from Switchfoot.
June 17, 2025 @ 6:59 pm
This and Margo Price being country again. I just can’t. Next year it’ll be Maren ‘going back to her roots’. I was happy to see Cyndi Thomson releasing music again, even if the songs were a little meh.
June 17, 2025 @ 9:24 pm
Despite all the whatevers with them over the years… one fact does remain… Kimberly Perry has an amazing voice. Can’t ever take that away from her, I saw them live at their height and she’s awesome.
June 18, 2025 @ 12:30 am
Agreed. Their first two albums were great. Despite the missteps, they have a lot of talent. I hope this is a comeback that works out for them.
June 17, 2025 @ 11:04 pm
…you might have landed in country… when the read starts: “You love your old dog. But sometimes the best thing for you to do and the most humane thing possible is to take it out behind the barn, express your love for all the good times, and shoot it.” or on “garden & gun”, for that matter.
June 18, 2025 @ 2:31 am
I went down a rabbit hole a couple of weeks ago and listened to her solo album for the first time. I thought it was pretty dire.
June 18, 2025 @ 8:17 am
I was looking forward to her solo career. I really liked “If I Die Young II” even if the rest of the album was average. I thought that would have been the come back but I guess not. I liked the first two albums from Band Perry and will listen to this one. Maybe we might get a part 3, like Metallica did with the Unforgivens.
June 19, 2025 @ 12:09 am
Part of me wishes I had attended their techno show at a bar in Destin, Florida just to say I was there… what a weird fall from grace.
June 19, 2025 @ 8:01 am
At least the Band Perry members are still with us,unlike EVERY member of Lynyrd Sknyrd.(As well as every original Molly Hatchet dude.I met Molly Hatchet circa 1995 when they played at a Windsor,Ont.,bar).
June 23, 2025 @ 1:06 pm
Saw them that same year in Golden Colorado at a bar!